Our Team

Head Office: Sydney, NSW

John van der Vegt

Managing Director

John has spent 26 of his 28 insurance broking years dedicated to servicing the needs of agricultural clients at AgriRisk. Seeing a gap in the market over 20 years ago with very few products available to farmers, John and his business partner Steven Green established AgriRisk to fill the void by working with insurers to develop niche products that suited a variety of agricultural industries including cotton, broadacre and forestry.

There’s few people with more first hand knowledge of the agricultural insurance market and John not only knows where to access product and how to modify covers to meet client requirements but drives new products that he knows will meet the varied needs of farmers.

At the helm of AgriRisk, John is responsible for its overall management and servicing some of the larger corporate accounts. He firmly believes that the business offers a unique service to its clients, most notably in taking the time to understand growers’ needs, maintaining consistent, long term face-to-face service and always looking for new ways to manage agricultural risk.

Deidre McCallum

Branch Manager

With over three decades of insurance experience, Dee’s career has taken her to three countries specialising in roles as varied as travel, construction and for the last 16 years, agriculture with AgriRisk.

Dee has a natural affinity with the bush and rural people and this combined with extensive insurance knowledge has seen Dee maintain a loyal group of clients for well over a decade.

A crop specialist, Dee’s role at AgriRisk includes managing a portfolio of corporate agribusinesses, primarily cotton and broadacre farmers and plantation owners. She’s also responsible for Group Marketing and Advertising as well as delivering internal training programs to ensure staff are fully competent in the products we deal with.

Dee strives to demystify insurance by understanding her clients needs and providing relevant and appropriate solutions. Whilst the products can be complex, Dee works to keep it simple and easy for clients to understand. Dee works with integrity and honesty and is always prepared to go the extra mile negotiating hard on her clients behalf.

Norm Trethewey

Manager - AgriRisk Weather

Specialities: Weather Index Products

Norm Trethewey is AgriRisk’s specialist Weather Manager. This area of the business helps clients find solutions for protecting against natural perils related to weather.

With a 25 year background in insurance and capital markets, Norm arranged the first weather risk transfer deal in Australia in 1999 and has since executed innovative weather transactions in Australia, Europe, Japan and the U.S.

Norm believes a key strength is understanding the impact of adverse weather on crops and agribusiness and having strong relationships with global weather underwriters so that a number of products can be offered and tailored to client’s needs.

Julia Marsh

Corporate Administrator

As AgriRisk’s Corporate Administrator based in Sydney Head Office, Julia is responsible for ensuring clients receive seamless and transparent service through best practice systems and processes.

Insurance can be a complicated business, and Julia’s role involves simplifying the experience for AgriRisk clients so they understand when and how they must secure their risk management products to ensure they’re covered appropriately.

Julia holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, strong experience in the corporate sector and believes thorough organisational skills and excellent communication are the keys to success.

Julia gets great satisfaction in ensuring the internal systems are right, so staff members can do their job and deliver the best possible experience to the client.

Carol Castello-Gonzalez

Claims Manager

Carol is AgriRisk’s Claims Manager. Based at Head Office in Sydney this role involves the day to day management of the company’s claims portfolio from the time a claim is made through to settlement. With a degree in Law and nearly a decade of experience in managing claims for Australia’s largest insurers, Carol brings a deep understanding of the contractual nature of insurance and great attention to detail.

Carol has a passion for ensuring claims are dealt with quickly and to the satisfaction of clients, and feels that strong time management skills are an essential part of the role. As a broker, AgriRisk works for the client rather than the insurer, and this creates a customer-focused culture within the business.

Tamworth Office

Andrew Smith

Branch Manager

As Tamworth Branch Manager, Andrew oversees all aspects of the business including providing assistance to the team, pursuing new business opportunities and servicing his own suite of clients.

With over 10 years in corporate agri-insurance based in regional areas and the owner of a mixed farming enterprise just out of Tamworth, Andrew has the ideal combination of insurance and rural experience.

Andrew offers a superior level of agricultural insurance expertise and believes that high levels of customer service hold the keys to success.

Sally Vuk

Account Manager

Sally has spent her entire working life in the insurance and broking sector, specialising in agriculture. Born and bred in Tamworth, Sally remains based in this rural area, managing a portfolio of farm, cereal and cotton clients for AgriRisk.

One of the greatest satisfactions for Sally is the amount of on-farm interaction she has with clients, which she says enables her to better understand both the grower’s business and the risks that are being insured. Very focussed on customer service, Sally also enjoys helping a client through a claim to a positive outcome.

Sally counts client service, honesty, working with a good team of people, negotiation skills and product knowledge as the most important aspects of her role and believes that all of this must come together to be able to identify a clients needs to provide the best solution.

Tanya Payne

Account Manager

Tanya currently lives on a cattle and sheep property 60kms out of Tamworth, and spent 16 years before her time at AgriRisk as a specialist in professional insurance in Sydney.

Tanya is responsible for a portfolio of AgriRisk accounts including farm, crop, forestry and a suite of specialist professional products including Professional Indemnity and Management Liability Insurance.

She counts one of her most satisfying achievements at AgriRisk as successfully negotiating with Insurers to settle claims and delivering the good news to a grateful client. It is this superior personal service that Tanya offers her clients, backed by a great team with a wealth of knowledge of agriculture and insurance.

Sonia Lumber

Rural Administration Manager

Sonia Lumber is AgriRisk’s Rural Administration Manager. Based in the Tamworth office, Sonia utilises her professional qualifications and over 25 years experience to monitor business administration procedures and provide efficient service and product knowledge to clients.

AgriRisk staff takes great pride in their product knowledge and ability to translate what can be complex insurance language into meaningful communication and Sonia works hard to maintain positive client relationships through her strong communication skills.

Having grown up on the land, and now with a hobby farm out of Tamworth, Sonia also has a great love of the bush and its people, which has resulted in a group of loyal AgriRisk clients.

John O’Connell

Account Manager

As an Account Manager in AgriRisk’s Tamworth office, John looks after a number of loyal clients mainly in the crop and rural insurance areas, advising risk strategies and tailoring solutions for farmers.

John has over 25 years experience in the rural insurance sector, including running his own brokerage in Ireland for 22 years.

John believes that AgriRisk’s success lies in three main factors: superior personal service, attention to detail and great relationships with insurers.

Lucy Fisher

Account Executive

Lucy has re-joined the AgriRisk team in Tamworth as Account Executive after taking a short break to concentrate on her family. She has lived in the local area her entire life, loves everything about country life and believes there’s something about being on a farm that puts life into perspective.

A strong rapport with country people and a good understanding of their needs has led to rural and crop insurance being a particular area of interest. Lucy is continuously developing her skills and knowledge with the goal of becoming an account manager in the future.

According to Lucy, insurance broking is all about understanding a clients’ needs and providing expert advice and services. Because we specialise in rural and crop insurance, our clients can feel comfortable knowing they have put their trust in someone who is experienced in dealing with these types of policies regularly, and knows the ins and outs of their policies.

Toowoomba Office

Roger Henderson

Account Manager

Roger enjoys nothing more than sitting around a kitchen table with a farmer, working through insurance solutions and concluding with a tailored product that suits the client’s business.

As an active community member, Roger appreciates that AgriRisk is reversing the current trends of businesses moving away from the bush and offers personalised customer contact in local communities.

Over 25 years in agriculture in a variety of government and private sector roles, the last six with AgriRisk, Roger has developed a deep understanding of the rural sector and now the insurance market. This allows him to develop a rapport with his clients, giving growers confidence they are dealing with someone who understands their situation.

Roger is a crop specialist focussed on AgriRisk’s Queensland clients, including cotton, sorghum, wheat, chickpeas and barley as well as any general insurance opportunities.

Heidi Barrett

Account Executive

Heidi was born and grew up in Toowoomba where she now works as an Account Executive for AgriRisk, specialising in crop insurance. Not a day goes by where Heidi doesn’t find great enjoyment in learning something new from the wide variety of people she interacts with: farmers, loss adjusters, cotton gin managers and researchers.

Her enthusiasm, organisational skills, client interaction and a great training and development program saw Heidi start as a contract temp who never left and whose greatest career achievement so far has been obtaining a Diploma in Insurance Broking.

Heidi believes AgriRisk is dedicated to understanding the risks that farmers encounter and taking the time to understand their individual needs when it comes to insurance. She says you will never get an automated phone service when you ring, you get real people who love nothing better then visiting clients on farm to see how their operation works, first-hand.

Jenna Trickey

Account Manager

Specialities: Commercial Insurance

Based in the Toowoomba Office and with over 10 years experience as an insurance broker, Jenna is responsible for the management and growth of AgriRisk’s Commercial Insurance Portfolio. This includes tailoring risk management solutions for clients, providing comprehensive insurance packages to suit their needs and claims management.

A thorough understanding of the market and the multitude of insurance products available and a preference for doing business face to face are some of the attributes that see Jenna’s clients remain loyal.

In fact Jenna feels a great sense of achievement when she receives a referral from an existing client and believes this is the greatest compliment a business like AgriRisk can receive.

Let’s start a conversation

To find out how AgriRisk can assist your agribusiness, contact us
to discuss your requirements with one of our experienced team members.